Family Matters
by QuantamTheory
Summary: A series of vignettes about the residents of The Gallows and how they became a family. The serious, the demented and everything in between.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** _Life Lessons_ made me love writing both Lord Death and Patty (something I never thought would happen!). I really want to explore the dynamic between the members of The Gallows family and how they've developed. I'm sure some of my facts aren't canon - please let me know if you spot a continuity error. I'd love to hear readers' ideas on the scenarios they'd enjoy seeing, too (or if they think I should continue this thing at all!)

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><p><strong>Chapter One: Look What the Kid Dragged In<strong>

Not many people had the guts to tell God to go fuck himself. And even fewer of those people were fifteen year old girls. Then again, Lord Death mused, what did he know about fifteen year old girls? Maybe they were all mouthy, substance-abusing, disrespectful little monsters. This particular specimen and her sister had been under his roof for less than two hours and the entire house was in turmoil. He'd finally cornered Elizabeth Thompson in the library and informed her in no uncertain terms that rehab was in her future.

She'd responded by telling him off in a heap, grabbing a bottle of his 62 year-old Dalmore scotch and swigging it like water. She glared at him with blue eyes that would have been lovely if they weren't so bloodshot. Her pupils were mere pinpricks, and he wondered what on earth she was on. Out of all the criminals in New York, Kid couldn't have found a couple of_ sober_ ones to bring home?

"You can go fuck yourself!" Liz repeated, tossing her wild mane of dirty blonde hair, "You aren't taking my sister away from me!"

"Nobody is trying to separate you and your sister. You are both going in for medical testing and then into a work rehabilitation program until I know if I can trust either of you."

Frankly, Death was almost more concerned about the little one, Patricia. Elizabeth was street-wise, smart-mouthed and liked her chemicals, but her twelve year-old sister seemed downright dangerous. She was the same age as his son, but ten times more terrifying. Lord Death had a few choice words he wanted to say to the usually dependable Kid, who had been banished to his room until this mess could be straightened out.

"_Work rehabilitation_?!" Liz shrieked, "Your stupid kid said we were going to be his personal weapons, and now you're trying to pull this shit on me? If he even _is_ your son. How come he looks like does and you look like...that?"

Lord Death sighed and dissolved his Reaper aspect. Not something he did in front of most people, but the girl was high as a kite and probably wouldn't remember anyway.

"Better?" he asked.

She didn't bat an eyelash, "Well I guess you are his daddy after all." she drawled, putting poisonous emphasis on the 'daddy', "Where is the little bastard, anyway? He promises us the friggin' moon, drags us to the middle of _nowhere_, and then disappears. Typical guy."

She lifted the Scotch and took another healthy slug straight from the bottle.

"You don't drink good Scotch that way." Death grabbed the bottle out of her hand and stalked back to the liquor cabinet where he poured a couple of neat doubles.

"First lesson," he said, handing her a heavy-bottomed crystal glass etched with his skull emblem, "If you're going to do something, do it right."

Liz looked dumbfounded, "You tell me I have to get all clean and well-behaved before I'm allowed around your precious baby and then give me a glass of booze? What the hell is wrong with you? Like, it's only bad if I'm not drinking it out of a fancy-ass cup?"

"You already took it without asking. I just gave you something to put it in. And aren't the "fancy ass" things the whole reason you agreed to come here? I sincerely doubt it's because you want to use your talents to help us promote order and peace in the world."

Lord Death thought she was going to throw the glass at him. Liz _knew_ that she was.

"If you break that, you are going to be one very sorry young lady."

His voice was hard, and for the first time, Liz' bravado failed her. She put the glass down and lit a cigarette to hide her fear. If there was one thing she knew about men, it was that you never let them see you scared.

"No smoking," he told her, "Kid's allergic."

Okay, even God being pissed off at her couldn't stop her from thinking _that_ was funny.

"He's supposed to be a bad-ass, son-of-God Reaper and smoke gives him the sniffles?" she giggled hysterically, shaking so hard she almost dropped the cigarette on the rug. Maybe she _should_ go ahead and drop it. Burn a hole right through the thing. It was awfully expensive-looking and she was willing to be it wasn't a fake. Serve them right, stupid-ass rich people looking down on her and telling her what to do...

"I sent Kid to take your souls, you know." Lord said conversationally, pausing to take a much-needed sip of his drink, "Your crimes were pushing you toward becoming Kishin. Kid is convinced that you were only doing what you had to in order to survive. Convinced enough to want you as personal weapons. Which, I might add, he actually has no need of, and I suspect he's being driven by, uh, _aesthetic_ motives. I'm humoring all three of you right now but there is a limit to what I'm going to put up with. And right now you're pushing that limit pretty hard."

He was standing in front of her, watching her antics impassively, and when Liz glanced up at him the laughter died on her lips. His yellow eyes were sort of glowing and Liz could see some kind of purple sparks coming off of him. She realized he wasn't fooling around; she'd been around death enough to recognize it's crawling sensation on her skin. He really wouldn't hesitate to take her soul. and then what would happen to Patty? They'd come here for Kid's wealth and she needed to stay alive so her sister could take advantage of it. She turned away and tossed the cigarette into the fireplace.

"Thank you." he said politely. The weird light went out of his eyes and the sparks stopped snapping around him. Now he just looked...disappointed, and it made Liz feel worse than any amount of anger could have. She'd pissed off a lot of people in her life, but nobody had ever bothered to be disappointed in her before.

"You're welcome." Liz held out her glass, "What do you want me to do with this?"

"Drink up." he replied, "But from this minute on there will be no drugs, no smoking, you will _ask_ if you want a drink, and there will be precious few times I say yes. You will meet the terms of your parole, and you will behave yourself, and _if_ you become my son's weapons you will act in a manner befitting that position. Can you manage that?"

Damn straight she could. She wasn't going to let anything get between her and the good life that was just within her grasp. Money was safety, and Patty was going to be safe no matter what Liz had to do.

"Sure I can. No problem." she shrugged, trying act like she wasn't terrified.

"Well then," Lord Death clinked his glass against hers, "Here's to your future, Elizabeth."

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><p><strong>AN:** I don't know if Kid really has allergies (probably not), but it cracked me up in chapter three of the manga/anime when they go into the pyramid and he was complaining because the dust made his eyes itch. It was sort of precious, so I ran with it, even though he is a Reaper.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** I'll probably do a lot of time skips later on in this story, but the first three chapters, at least, will be continuous, or at least pretty close to Liz and Patty's introduction to life at the Gallows.

Thank you to everyone who read chapter one and is coming back for more. You are adored and appreciated! As always, if you have an idea or find an error, please let me know. I keep looking things up in the manga and on Nenena's excellent (and hilarious) live-blogging-while-translating archive when writing, but I'm not sure my timelines, facts and references are always correct.

I imagine Lord Death as the kind of guy who likes being be a dad and loves his son, but is constantly working,distracted and has no clue how to deal with certain things. Also, he's a flaky goofball sometimes. Hope this comes across and that he doesn't seem like an uncaring bastard who hates dealing with his son. However, I can say from personal experience that sometimes you seriously don't want to deal with kids' weird crap. Especially of the "Why the _hell _did you _do_ that?" variety!

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><p>Lord Death really couldn't afford to spend more of his day on domestic affairs, but he absolutely had to have to talk with his son, and with Sid Barrett. Talking to Sid was going to be much more enjoyable, so he went ahead and did that first. He <em>was<em> on his way up to Kid, he rationalized, so he wasn't avoiding the unpleasant task before him; he was just being _efficient _by talking to Sid on the way_. _Efficient, that was it.

"Listen," he said when his intelligence officer answered, "Can you send a couple of guards over here? Probably need three shifts. Kids brought two girls home and-"

Sid's laughter interrupted him.

"Isn't he a little young for that? He might need protection, but not the armed kind!"

"Can it, Sid. I've got a serious issue over here!" Lord kept his voice mild, but he really kind of wanted to throw his cell phone down the stairs.

"Sorry, can't help joking when you make it so easy. That's just the kind of guy I am."

Death stopped on the top step, "The guy you are is the kind who's going to set up a guard rotation for the west hallway on the second floor to keep a drug-addled street urchin and her mentally unstable sister from destroying the house or robbing it blind."

"I'm not even gonna ask."

"Good, You don't want to know." Lord Death paused for a moment before flopping into one of the spindly-legged sofas in the upstairs hall, "How do you reign Black Star in when he gets out of hand, Sid?"

"We don't. Matter of fact, Nygus just called me and told me to get my ass home because the kid is literally climbing the walls. Running him around the block a couple of dozen times usually helps."

"I thought school would calm him down a little."

"Yeah, we did too, but all it's doing is making him obsessed with beating the crap out of all the other kids to prove he's really somebody."

"At least he's not obsessed with _matching_. Kid is getting out of control," sighed the man who controlled life and death all over the world, "I had to have all the paintings put in the attic because they threw the symmetry of the house off. And don't even me started on the cleaning thing."

He'd just had to hire _another_ maid to keep up with Kid's growing need for order and cleanliness. His latest freak was demanding dual paper holders in all the bathrooms so 'the toilets wouldn't be off balance'. The housekeeper, who adored the boy, was worried sick because it was taking Kid two hours to eat his dinner symmetrically and he'd go into a fit of unstoppable hysterics when he couldn't manage it.

"He's getting worse, huh?" Sid was all sympathy. Black Star didn't remember losing his family but he still rebelled against the knowledge of what they'd been and done. What he'd do if he not only remembered losing his mother, but had adored her...well, Sid didn't even want to think about that. And then there was the way Sophie's illness had finally played out. No wonder Kid was a mess.

"Yeah. Things are really going to hell since I sent Marie out to Oceania. She was able to help him stay on track, but I didn't have a choice, Sid. You know there just wasn't anybody else. I didn't have a fucking _choice_." Death dropped his head forward and pinched the bridge of his nose, "She suggested I put Kid into counseling, but he's going to be the next Lord. I can't have it confirmed that he's not right in the head. The rumors are bad enough. It makes me sick to say it, but he's just going to have to get through this."

"i hear you, man, I hear you. Nothing harder than not being able to help your own boy. Speaking of which, I need to go handle mine or Nygus is going to slit both our throats. Clay and Akane are on their way to the office; I'll pull them off duty and send them over to handle the first shift."

Lord Death sat up abruptly, "No, that's not necessary. Just send over a couple of enlisted men. Big ones. The scarier the better. I just need someone to make sure those girls stay in their rooms. Keep Clay and Akane on task. If there's a witch running around town I want the filthy bitch caught _now_!"

"You got it." Sid assured his boss hastily, "We'll find out what's going on. Don't worry." Nobody liked witches, but Lord Death was off the charts in the hatred department. Understandably, of course, after what the witches had done to his family. If anybody ever took Nygus away and screwed Black Star up they'd earn Sid's eternal hatred, too.

"Sorry. Forgive me," Lord Death said, his voice sounding exhausted over the line, "It's been a long day. Thanks for everything."

"Never a problem."

"Give Nygus my best."

"Will do."

Lord Death ended the call and slumped back into his seat. The phone dropped into his lap and he looked idly around the room. He finally registered the fact that all the furniture had been rearranged into mirror images along each wall and that, for some reason known only to Kid, a bijouterie table full of his mother's cameos was perched on the window seat. Lord Death was sure it had something to do with making the room even, or maybe Kid just didn't want to look at the cameos. Who knew. Sophie could have figured it all out in an instant, but she was gone and he had tables up in the air and delinquents in the house because of it. Should he put the table back down on the floor, or maybe just hide it away somewhere? It wasn't like the room would look empty without it, even if it was a huge space. Come to think of it, why on earth _was_ this glorified landing the size of a small barn? Maybe he should empty it and turn it into a media room to amuse those two girls or something...

Realizing that he really _was _stalling, putting off speaking with his own son, Lord Death rose tiredly to his feet. For the twentieth time that day, he wished his wife could come back and help him deal with things like she used to. For the millionth time over the last two years he realized how much he'd relied on her for the parenting stuff. And for the very first time, he realized that he had every intention of keeping the two degenerate little gun-girls if it made his son happy.

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><p><strong>AN: **As Nenena pointed out in one of her excellent commentaries, a timeline flaw in Soul Eater indicates that Sid was only about 12 when he rescued and adopted Black Star. I'm just gonna go ahead and ignore that one and assume Sid was a little older when he died than he said he was. If you haven't read Soul Eater Not!, Clay and Akane are members of Sid's intelligence team and when they're not moonlighting as NOT students, they're helping him track down a witch in Death City.

**Replies!**

**Stropanthus: **I'm so glad you saw the funny side of it - I didn't want it to be depressingly serious. Some of these will be one-shot vignettes, but they'll all be headed toward a point in the future after the end of the manga.

**HiCrazyCow:** Thank you so much! I really try to leave reviews for anything I read; it means so, so much when people leave comments for me. I'm thrilled that I'm getting the characters across in the way I imagine them. Getting words to reflect the things in my head while leaving room for people to get into the story with their own imaginations is tough for me. I'll be looking for more of your work, too!

**REDEADED:** Get 'em while they're cheap, buddy! Con ought to be a wild ride this year, and the price starts going up steadily from now on!

Make you a deal: I write your personal confrontation and you write my tension and physical/fight scenes! We should totally collaborate on some kind of crack-head story.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** I sincerely hope this makes sense, because I've had to take an awful lot of NyQuil today. It should be against the laws for mothers to get sick three days before Christmas!

Big hugs and thankyous to everyone who's been reading and commenting - I really, really appreciate it! If you have something you'd like to see worked into one of these vignettes, let me know and I'll see what I can do. And as always, if you spot any continuity errors, please let me know - I do my best to reference properly, but there's a LOT of Soul Eater to keep straight, and sometimes it contradicts itself;)

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><p><strong>Chapter Three<strong>

Lord Death took a deep breath and rapped lightly on his son's door with the back of his knuckles.

"Please come in, Father." Even through two inches of solid wood, Death could hear the strain in his son's voice. He slowly turned the silver knob and passed through the dark, cavernous bedroom. A single lamp burned beyond the door to the attached study, throwing a pale rectangle on the ebony floorboards. Inside, Kid stood formally in front of his desk. He'd changed his suit, but even the freshly pressed fabric wasn't smooth enough to satisfy him and he picked nervously at his cuffs.

"I'm sorry for taking up so much of your day with all this trouble." he apologized, hanging his head. Lord Death wondered if the fourteen foot ceiling was responsible for making his son look so small, or if Kid really was, as Elizabeth had claimed, "a little shrimp". He _was_ awfully small compared to her or her sister. Was he growing properly? Surely there had to be records somewhere that would indicate past growth rate. Sophie's office, maybe? But he was mentally wandering again, and sternly returned himself to the matter at hand.

"I've got them corralled in the last two rooms in the West wing." he began awkwardly, "Sid is sending over some people to keep an...eye on things."

Kid's lips tightened a little.

"To keep them from stealing, you mean." it wasn't a question.

Lord Death nodded, "Until we figure out just how this is all going to work, they don't get the run of the house. Kiddo, I know you did what you thought was best but you have to admit this was a hell of a shock. This sort of thing just isn't like you."

"I dealt with the situation as I saw fit. You're always reminding me to do that; not to follow rules blindly because nothing is black and white. Except my miserable, asymmetric hair, of course. Why can't the stripes go all the way around? Yours do. I hate being so unbalanced-" Kid's hands slid into his hair and he started scratching at himself, one of the hardest of his tics to watch. His father reached out and grabbed the scrabbling hands, holding them tightly as knelt on the floor.

"Kid! Stop right there. We are _not _doing this right now!" Death's voice was sharper than he meant it to be but he just didn't have it in him to deal with one of Kid's meltdowns. Not tonight. Not ever, if he was really honest with himself.

Kid took a few shaky breaths, trying to pull himself back from the brink.

"They didn't deserve to die, Dad. They stole money to live on, they stole _groceries_."

"They also stole cars and drugs and knocked off liquor stores. Not exactly necessities."

"Well, yes, but...I don't think they knew any better."

"And while we're on the subject of liquor and drugs, both of them are going to need some serious rehab. Then they're going into a probationary work program until I can really see what I'm dealing with."

"I'm sorry, Dad," Kid repeated, "But they're not kishin yet. 'Every person is responsible for the path they take', right? They deserve a chance to choose the right one, now."

"I just wish I was sure of your motivations. Encouraging those girls to move in a positive direction is a wonderful thing. Inviting them to be your personal weapons is a whole other story."

"I know I don't have to make my own weapon, but I want to know I'm capable of doing it myself. How else can I really understand the value of what our technicians and weapons go through to make a Death Scythe?"

Kid's eyes were starting to tear up, but Death couldn't tell if it was due to emotional stress or because he was being kept from the damned _scratching_. Either way, it was hard to watch.

"If that's the reason you're doing it, then I commend you. But I want you to really search your heart, Kiddo. You brought them here and now you're responsible for them. _I'm_ responsible for them. They aren't just weapons to be used, they're living, breathing human beings with feelings and problems. A lot of problems, in their case. If you turned their lives upside down just because they _match_, you're doing them a huge disservice. And you will have utterly failed to be the kind of Reaper and the kind of son your mother and I always hoped you would be."

Kid's hands were now trembling fists and Lord Death had to tighten his grip to keep them from breaking free.

"I didn't...I'm not. I don't _think_ I did." he stammered, "But I promise that I won't ever let them down. I know I've got problems and that you must be ashamed of me, but I won't ever think of them just as weapons. I promise!"

He dropped his chin, unwilling to let his father see the humiliated tears finally spill from his eyes.

"I'm not ashamed of you. I've never been ashamed of you." Lord Death could almost feel his heart cracking at the thought that his son had been keeping such painful ideas to himself. He let go of Kid's hands and gently rested his palm on the side of the boy's pale face. Kid looked a little shocked by the contact and that was heart-wrenching as well. They'd become such strangers since Sophie had gone, and if Death knew it was mostly his fault. He'd isolated himself with his grief, pretty much leaving his son to muddle through as best he could and take on the burden of his mother's work as well. He deserved a good kick in the ass, but the one person who would have given it to him wasn't around anymore.

"But the way I act sometimes...I know how bad it must look and-"

"You've been through a lot in the past couple of years, Kiddo. Don't think I don't know it. Things have been, uh, hard for both of us. You do the best you can, and it's plenty. I have never, ever been ashamed of you."

He pulled his son's head against his shoulder, almost melting when Kid's arms went around him and he felt the boy's hands fist in the back of his coat, just like they used to when he was little. He had to get better at this single parenting thing. He just had to.

"Tell you what," he said, pulling back, "Let's go downstairs and I'll have dinner with you."

"Really?"

"Yep." Lord Death climbed to his feet, "You've gotta be hungry; you did, uh, _forcibly_ apprehend eleven members of that street gang to save Elizabeth and Patricia this morning. US Attorney Lynch says thank you, by the way."

Kid smiled and wiped his hand across his face. as he followed his father out into the hall. They hadn't even made it to the stairs when Death stopped with a little gasp. Five seconds later his phone rang shrilly, echoing along the hall. He picked up and listed, his frown deepening by the moment.

"I know. I'll be right there." his said tersely, ending the call. He whirled to face Kid, already distracted with a million thoughts, "I'm sorry Kid, but I have to go. There's been a terrible flood in Portugal. Lots of casualties."

"There's heavy pre-kishin activity there right now, isn't there?" Nobody ever had to remind Kid to do his homework.

"Yes, and if we don't want one gorging himself into full kishin status, I've got to get Death Scythes on the ground to collect those poor souls. Go eat something and then get ready to go out. I'm going to need you there." He assumed his full Reaper aspect and summoned a mirror.

"I will." Kid said to his father's disappearing back. It didn't matter about dinner, there was work to be done. He lifted his chin, squared his shoulders, and headed downstairs, pausing to throw a glance at the entrance to the West hallway.

He would be everything he was supposed to be from now on. For humanity and for his father and for them. _He would._

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><p><strong>AN:** Going back through early chapters in the manga I was struck by how very adorably short Kid was drawn back then and had to mention it in this chapter. Because NyQuil, probably.

**Replies!**

**UnflinchingResolve:** I'm so glad you still think so! Thank you *hugs*

**Kara Black:** Thank you for the amazing compliment! I hope this sort of qualifies as father-son bonding time. Kid and his dad have a complicated relationship, and I envision it being pretty strained at this point iin their lives. I want to show how the arrival of Liz and Patty ends up bringing Kid and Lord Death closer.

**REDEADED:** Con-ward! Only 5 and a half months to go!

**Strophanthus:** Writing Lord Death was so hard for me until I started thinking of him as a person. Now I love writing him, because as a person he'd have a really complicated life.


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